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Sunday Letter: 05.17.2020

May 17, 2020 By Talya Tate Boerner 9 Comments

Sunday Letter

Hello Sunday Letter friends,

I have figured something out about coronavirus. Not only does a world with coronavirus make time pass at lightning speed—I mean, it’s already the middle of MAY—but it also makes my arms flabby.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Truly, I’m not making light of COVID-19; this is me trying to make it down the road. The gravel washed-out, pot-holed road.

This past week was another rollercoaster for me. There were several days when I felt as though I might come out of my skin. And then other times, all was well and I was content to sit and write for hours. Continue Reading

My view from today.

July 24, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner 29 Comments

my view from here is like the top of the Ferris wheel.Today is significant. If I were to draw a line in the sand to separate yesterday from tomorrow, today would be that line. The end of a part of my life. The beginning of something new. My view from today is much like the view from the top of a Ferris wheel.

Today, our youngest is moving to Denver to start his new job. His career. The rest of his life. Today truly feels like the first empty nest day. The college years merely provided practice and time to become accustomed to cooking less for supper.

Now things get real.Continue Reading

How NOT to bake a Strawberry Cake.

May 19, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 22 Comments

We have many traditions in our family including Nana’s strawberry cake recipe. Since my birthday always happened during our Fourth of July trip to the lake, Momma (or Nana) baked a fresh strawberry cake at home to carry with us. (No one wanted to do real cooking at the lake.) Even after driving through the Ozarks, waiting in line at the ferry, and stopping in town for groceries,  the cake was dreamy and luscious. We gorged on it all week.

This weekend, (daughter) Kelsey and I messed with tradition. For (son) Tate’s twenty-first birthday, we decided to tweak the recipe. Since we both love to cook, we thought it would be fun to try something new. We researched on-line recipes. Only a 4.5 star recipe would do.

Clearly, we weren’t right in our heads. Why mess with perfection? (Our excuses—I’d been cooped up too long in the house writing, and she’d just finished law school finals.)

The recipe we selected looked wonderful. It contained strawberry preserves and fresh strawberries and cake flour and vanilla bean paste. Plus there was buttermilk. Buttermilk means serious baking, y’all.

And oh my goodness, the batter. We licked the spatula and most of the bowl. Best batter ever. Light and fluffy.

We were feeling smug about our new and improved strawberry cake right up to the moment we tasted the finished product.

how not to bake a strawberry cake

What a complete waste of calories. The cake was dense and flavorless, more like a bad grocery store bundt cake than fresh homemade cake-cake. The frosting was all wrong and not sweet enough.

It wasn’t Nana’s cake.

strawberry cake debacle - sometimes it's bad to mess with tradition

Not even close.

If Nana was watching (and of course she was), I’m sure she was thoroughly entertained by the whole birthday cake tasting debacle. The birthday boy pretended to like it. The rest of us gagged a few bites down. Kelsey had to cleanse her palate with a plain strawberry. (It did leave a strange aftertaste.) My sister’s boyfriend said it tasted like Nestle’s Quik strawberry drink from back in the day.

Even with a less than stellar cake, the day was a success because it was spent with family. We’ll be laughing about our cake experiment for a while…

Luckily we still have Nana’s 5-star recipe. And with my birthday only fifty-two days away, I know we’ll get the real thing soon enough at the lake. Momma will see to it.

Nana - queen of the strawberry cake

Nana – baker of the best strawberry cake…

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

P.S. Today as I went back to review the recipe we used (trying to decide whether or not to call it out on my blog), I realized we chose a 2-star recipe! Not sure HOW that happened after reading so many 4 and 5 star recipes. Like I said, we weren’t in our right minds. This whole thing would have been avoided had we read the reviews. So be sure to never make the Country Living Fresh Strawberry Cake. It’s anything but.

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” ― Julia Child

Musical Pairing:

Carry on Wayward Son

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Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

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